SAN ANTONIO — To get a sense of how Donald Trump looms large over Will Hurd, the Republican fighting for re-election in one of the country’s most closely watched congressional races, turn on a TV in West Texas.

Scores of attack ads link the freshman lawmaker to the divisive presidential nominee. Hurd, trying to fend off Pete Gallego, the Democrat he ousted two years ago, now pitches himself as the “only candidate willing to stand up to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.”

Trump has become a fixture in the 23rd District, Texas’ only battleground House race and one of about two dozen across the country receiving attention for their spandex-tight margins.

“Every Republican-held seat right now is sacred,” said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. Maintaining the majority “is the only way Republicans can exercise veto of Hillary Clinton and her legislative agenda.”

But for all the talk about how Trump will affect down-ballot races, several voters here say he has little impact on who they support for the House seat. For many, the issues facing this sprawling district — which encompasses 29 counties and stretches nearly 600 miles from San Antonio to El Paso — trump Trump.

Peggy Schriner, a tax preparer and Medina County Republican, said her dislike of Trump won’t stop her from voting for Hurd because he represents her views on the economy, national security and education.

“This whole thing about Trump and Hurd are the same thing, there’s no thought to that,” she said.

Wayne Jones, a Marine Corps veteran and Republican in San Antonio, said he isn’t a fan of either presidential nominee but will cross party lines to vote for Gallego. The Democrat helped him resolve a long-standing issue with the Department of Veterans Affairs while in office. “He came through for me when I needed him,” Jones said.

Allen Wiatrek, a retired nurse, longtime Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter, plans to vote for Trump over Clinton because of her “proven baggage.” But the Hondo resident is still deciding which House candidate should have his vote.

Wiatrek supported Gallego two years ago but isn’t convinced the Democrat delivered enough to the district to deserve a second term. He likes Hurd’s stance on border security but is concerned about the consequences of the former CIA officer’s call to expel Russian diplomats over hacking and suspected election meddling.

“In my old age, that bravado sounds very silly and dangerous,” said Wiatrek, 64, adding that he’s now “straight up on the fence” about whom to vote for.

Democrat Pete Gallego, seeking to regain the congressional seat he lost to Republican Will Hurd in 2014, spoke to members of the San Antonio AFL-CIO Council about the race this month.

(Katie Leslie/Staff)

Both Hurd and Gallego — and Libertarian Ruben Corvalan, who has gained little attention in the race — have just a couple of weeks to turn out voters. Early voting starts Monday.

For Hurd, that means focusing on his nascent record while fending off Trump comparisons — and painting Gallego, a lawyer and former longtime state representative, as an ineffective career politician.

Hurd has seen five bills become law during his first term, including one that improves the government’s IT systems and another that renames a port of entry in El Paso County after a WWI Texas veteran.

“This race was won or lost over the last 22 months, because we’ve actually gotten things done,” Hurd said amid a flurry of recent campaign events in San Antonio. “Gallego got absolutely nothing accomplished when he was in Washington. ... He can try to tie me to other folks as much as he wants, but the reality is, he did not perform.”

With several military installations in the district, both men have heavily pursued initiatives to help veterans. But Gallego’s camp notes that Hurd served under a Republican majority, giving him a legislative advantage. Hurd has built off momentum that Gallego started in office, the Democrat said.

“He’s building his argument that I didn’t do anything, but he’s taking credit for my work,” Gallego said.

Both men, for example, say they had a role in fixing a flooding issue at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio. Gallego requested funding for the problem while in office. But the flooding issue wasn't resolved, Hurd's camp notes, until Hurd pursued and ultimately secured the needed dollars.

Hurd, the son of an African-American father and white mother, said it was “really sad” that Gallego would “play the race card against a person like me who grew up experiencing the harsh realities of racism.”

Gallego said that holding Hurd accountable for his response to Trump is fair play and that if Trump’s video about women hadn’t emerged, Hurd wouldn’t have denounced him.

“He is trying to pass off his fear of making a decision as courage,” Gallego said. “It’s a craven political act.”

Hurd knows he faces an uphill battle for re-election, even without Trump, since presidential election years tend to favor Democrats. In 2012, for instance, the district supported GOP nominee Mitt Romney but elected Gallego. Two years later, in a midterm election, Hurd defeated Gallego by fewer than 2,500 votes.

While plenty of party loyalists will vote down the line, “given the Trump factor and that you’ve got Hurd in the middle of that soup, you’ve got potential for there to be a lot of split-ticket voting.”

Credible polling in the district is scarce, but money pouring into the race indicates each party believes a victory is possible. Facing the behemoth challenge of reaching constituents across a district that takes more than 10 hours to drive, the dollars are spread across four media markets.

The Republican National Congressional Committee has spent about $1.6 million on ads, largely in San Antonio. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved more than $3 million worth of airtime across the district in El Paso, San Antonio and Odessa.

All told, Hurd has outraised Gallego 2 to 1, bringing in $3.5 million during the campaign. Hurd has $1.1 million in cash on hand for the final weeks. Gallego has raised $1.7 million, with about $431,000 left, according to the most recent campaign finance report.

Rottinghaus said that because the district’s population is nearly 70 percent Hispanic, the race is Gallego’s to lose. But Republicans are spending money on Hurd, he said, for reasons that go beyond maintaining heavy control of the House. Hurd, just 39, is critical to the party's future.

“The GOP needs an image maker, and an African-American Republican with strong national security credentials is a perfect way to do that,” Rottinghaus said. “If he loses the seat, what is essentially conceded is the Republican Party is a party of angry old white people. They know going forward it is not a tenable solution.”